Role of FSA and Barclays

A question about : Role of FSA and Barclays

My currency was to be delivered on 8 Oct.........so Ј4000 lost.
Role of FSA very unclear....what are the substantive differences between ...'registered with...' ; 'authorised' and 'regulated'? Also role of Barclays......especially in relation to apparent delay in taking action.The entire episode reeks of deception.
Any questions being asked in our national representative democratic forum....ie...Parliament ??!!!

Best answers:

• Unfortunately these threads are becoming huge so it is difficult to read through them all, as this has been covered before.
  In a nutshell; money transfer companies are now required to register and be authorised by FSA for the purpose of money transfers. There are two categories, largely determined by company turnover. Small companies are given dispensation from many areas of regulation if their volumes are small (less than €3m a month for the 12 months preceding registration). These companies basically just fill out a registration form, pay a small fee and that's it. For larger companies (known as Payment Institutions) the requirements for authorisation are far more onerous; fit and proper persons tests for senior staff, maintain adequate capital, segregated accounts, close scrutiny of business plans, operating procedures and so on.
  Unfortunately the language is far from clear and companies that do come under the Small company regime are unlikely to volunteer the fact that they are small operators, that your funds are likely to be co-mingled (non-segregated) etc. for obvious reasons.
  Registration= a one-off process
  Authorisation= the approval of an application and permission to carry on your activity
  Regulated=an ongoing system and regime of monitoring and compliance
  In the case of CCE it is of great interest to see their turnover figures as to whether they correctly applied to the FSA as a Small company or whether they should have subsequently upgraded their status if turnover had exceeded ~(or was likely to exceed) the €3m threshold. It is the responsibility of the directors to apply for the correct category and for what they submit within their application.
• Ј3m isn't a large amount of credit when on the debit side you owe in excess of Ј20m.
  That straightaway shouts pyramid scheme.
  The accusation that he was allowed to gamble with our money is a red herring too. He'd have to be betting on 3 legged horses to create a fiscal black hole that size in a short space of time.
  If the debt wasn't accrued in a short period of time, then the likelihood is they were trading whilst potentially insolvent.
• Banks registered with SOCA must do reports every year for every client. I wonder what the contents of their report on Crown held.
• There are so many posts on these threads showing the links between CCE and other companies, many also having Benstead and his extended family as directors and possibly also banking with Barclays (TOR FX, Mayfair and Grant, etc). With Benstead's alleged documented past record as a director of failing companies, surely Barclays would keep a close oversight of his affairs. If, therefore, he was exceeding the terms of FSA registration without regulation, was Barclays deficient in not spotting it.
  It does seem that Barclays should have something to say to the 13,000 Benstead victims. Have they done so yet?
• i called the financial ombudsman today to make a complaint against barclays and they were absolutely useless.
  the guy refused to take my complaint as he said i was "not an eligible complainant".
  I argued with him for ages that Barclays have some responsibility in this (particularly for those of us whose payments Barclays allowed to be credited to the CCE account in the hours and days after they knew CCE were going into administration). I eventually gave up as I was getting nowhere.
  He said I could send a form in if I wanted but I would get the same response.
  Not only do I feel let down by CCE, Barclays and the FSA, now the Financial Ombudsman is being obstructive as well. Great.
• I'll be e-mailing you guys tommorow (you are one of Tracey and Jo aren't you?)
  It'll be a long e-mail, mind, and not just restricted to the Ombudsman. Nothing concrete but a lot of encouraging avenues to try.
• [QUOTE=karie;37346128]i called the financial ombudsman today to make a complaint against barclays and they were absolutely useless.
  the guy refused to take my complaint as he said i was "not an eligible complainant".
  Is the problem that the Ombudsman deals with complaints that you have not managed to resolve with your financial services provider? Probably you have to take the issue up with Barclays then wait eight weeks for them to fail to satisfy you before it is an issue for the ombudsman. Or are there other routes to the ombudsman?
• that wasn't the issue it seemed, i will try again on monday maybe as the guy was frustratingly unhelpful. just kept insisting that there was no case against barclays and i wasn't an eligible complainant.
• The Financial Ombudsman will only intervene where an actual transfer has taken place. As CCE did not make your currency transfer, the FO is unlikely to get involved. If you are complaining in regard to your transfer to Barclays then the FO will expect you to have followed the Bank's complaint procedure first before approaching them.
  HTH